TORONTO – A few weeks ago, Yankees trainer Steve Donohue handed a cell phone to Mariano Rivera. On the other end was Derek Jeter. Rivera wanted to check in with his long-time teammate, then marooned in Tampa, Fla. rehabbing a broken left ankle thought to be healed.

They have not spoken since. But Rivera can imagine how Jeter feels, now that a CT scan revealed an new fracture in the same area, a devastating setback that will keep Jeter out until after the All-Star Break.

“It must be devastating for him,” Rivera said. “Knowing him the way I know him, he wishes to be here right now. But those are things that are out of your control.”

The reverberations from Jeter’s latest injury are hard to gauge. On the field, his performance could not be predicted. He was coming off major surgery. He turns 39 in June. His range in the field was already in steep decline. He looked ungainly in limited action during spring training.

Yet to his teammates, Jeter’s role inside the clubhouse as the team’s captain and driving force means his absence will sting. Ichiro Suzuki said Jeter “can’t be replaced.” Manager Joe Girardi lamented the loss of his highest-profile leader. And Rivera indicated his friend must be “selfish” in his rehabilitation, and not attempt to rush back to the field.

“For once, [Jeter must] think about himself and think about what you have to do to get ready,” he said. “Forget about what you can do for the team. You can do nothing for the team right now. What you can do for the team is make sure you are 100 percent, mentally and physically.”

The genesis of the injury appears to confound Yankees officials. Jeter received full clearance from Dr. Robert Anderson, the operating physician, on March 7. But he experienced a setback less than two weeks later, when his ankle wouldn’t loosen up before a game on March 19. A cortisone shot the next day provided minimal relief. From there, he was shut down for more than a week. He returned to activity once the regular season began, but his workload slowed this past week.

He appeared stagnated until he visited Anderson on Thursday. That’s when he learned of the small crack in the ankle.

“I don’t know when it happened,” Girardi said. “I don’t think that any of us really do.”

Last May, Rivera tore his ACL shagging flyballs at Kaufmann Stadium. He could not stomach the thought of his final moments as a baseball player spent injured on the warning track. He understood Jeter’s impulse to avoid a similar fate, after he broke his ankle last October in the American League Championship series.

“Knowing him, that’s the last thing that he wants to people to remember,” Rivera said. “As a player, and the type of player that he is, sometimes we push a little bit farther than how we need to be push. But that’s our nature. We just want to do the things so we can be here for the team, and help the team as much as we can.”

Rivera stressed that Jeter must taper his drive to return. He could only come back when his ankle was fully healed. Rivera himself experienced this sensation last season, as tried to come back during the season.

“As a player, I wanted to be here in September,” he said. “And if the doctor didn’t shut me down, I would have hurt myself. Because I wasn’t ready for that. it’s hard. Because I can relate to that. I like to be on the field. I like to help my team and be present. You can’t do that when you’re hurt.”